


better dead than in hell

by noahfense



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Drama, Bad Parenting, Character Study, Drug Abuse, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, It's DC what do you expect?, Substance Abuse, Underage Drinking, Unhealthy Relationships, noahfense's dc universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26385880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noahfense/pseuds/noahfense
Summary: The day Jason Todd was born the world had ended.or a brief look into the life of Jason Todd pre-Bruce Wayne.
Relationships: Catherine Todd & Jason Todd, Catherine Todd & Jason Todd & Willis Todd, Sheila Haywood & Jason Todd, Willis Todd/Shelia Haywood
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	better dead than in hell

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dummyVicc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dummyVicc/gifts).



> this may say multiple chapters, but there will not be an update, so like don't get attached. this was written on a dare (kinda), Vic dared me to go 8 years without updating so I'm just gonna leave this here as long as I possibly can. 
> 
> this is also kind of a "first look" into my DCU i don't know if i'll eventually write an entire series about my dcu but the current plan is just to get better at art and draw some comic panels.

It was the third day of August and Gotham was on fire. Which by all means isn’t as an unusual occurrence as one would expect, especially in a city like Gotham. 

Gotham truly had a way of bringing the best and worst out in it’s people. She’d cradle others tightly in her arms and never let them go while leaving others out to freeze over in the winter. A pyromaniac was one of the least surprising things to come from her streets.

However, the sky was new.

It was the third day of August and the sky was bright red. In a rundown apartment complex in Park Row, Ruth Luiz had spent hours clutching rosaries and praying on sore knees, she’d seen the devil on August first and hadn’t stopped crying since. 

It’s the 16th day of August and it finally started raining. The people of Gotham had called it a miracle, until it wasn’t. The rain wouldn’t stop, the fire had long since gone out, the culprit, a masked freak that went by the name of “Firefly” had already been put behind bars. It was going on hour twelve of rainfall when the final nail in the coffin was hammered in. 

Half an hour away from Gotham General there’s a beat up 1987 dodge sitting in back to back traffic, the rain making it too hard to see and the roads too slippery, a six car pileup just down the road. There wasn’t anything special about this car, or even the people that sat in it. In a town like Gotham there were hundreds of people in their same predicament. It would be the thing that happened in just a few hours that would really seal their fate. 

“For fuck’s sake Sheila,” The man growled grabbing the pack of cigarettes off of the dashboard, “Bitchin’ at me ain’t gonna make the traffic fuckin vanish.” 

“Well if you’d only listened when I said we needed to leave an hour ago.” She bit back, Sheila can’t seem to remember what it was that she ever saw in him. 

“Yea well I had shit to do.” Willis grunted back, lighting the cigarette that was held in between his teeth. “Babies aint always born on their due date and as long as you’re not fuckin’ leaking everywhere there’s no need to rush to the hospital. Be grateful I didn’t make you wait ‘til tomorrow.” 

Sheila rolls her eyes and looks out the window. She’s not sure how her life had led her to this moment. 

Sheila Haywood was only 17 when she first met Willis. It was her first year in Gotham. While Gotham wouldn’t be anyone’s first choice in places to live, Gotham University had one of the best medical programs in the country and Shelia like all the other girls in her circle wanted to be Nurses.

While her grades didn’t necessarily scream “Gotham University” it wasn’t something her dad waving around some money wouldn’t fix because “ _anything for his baby girl_ ”, at least that was the case until it came to Willis.

He had hated Willis and it took Sheila too long to figure out why. He’d already cut her out of his life by the time she’d found out she was pregnant.

And now here she was in a shitty car with a man she barely liked, let alone loved, about to give birth to his child. 

* * *

He came into the world screaming, red faced covered in blood screaming his lungs out. 

“Well fuck, you gave birth to the antichrist.” Willis said later on after the baby, _their_ baby had been cleaned off and returned to them, a lazy smirk tugging at the end of his lips, white hair falling in front of his hazel eyes as he stared into ones that looked exactly like his. There wasn’t anything loving about that gaze, Sheila wouldn’t ever be able to place the word, but in that moment Willis looked every bit like the Devil neighbour Ruthie called him. 

Their nurse’s eyes looked worried as she gave Sheila a sympathetic smile, “Do we have a name picked out for baby?” 

_Months earlier saw Sheila laying on Willis’s old couch, a movie playing on the vcr in the background. She wasn’t watching it, just laying there with her eyes closed listening to Willis smoke and drink. It’s quiet, and the closest thing to peace she’d experienced in weeks. Willis had been on a rampage, some shit had gone down with his “buddies” and he’d started taking it out on anyone in his immediate vicinity, and then tended to be her. She had enough cuts on her feet from stepping on broken beer bottles to prove it._

_“Y’know,” Willis says suddenly, it’s spoken softly, there’s not a hint of the heat that’s been in his tone lately, “This was my mom’s favorite movie.”_

_Sheila opens her eyes now, in the 5 years she’s known him she could count on one hand the times he’s talked about his mother and still have fingers left over. One, she silently counted out in her head, her name was Adele. Two, Willis blames his father-_ **_Kurtis_ ** _, he doesn’t call him father, for her death. Three, Willis looks like her, he showed her a picture once, he was drunk and overly emotional and showed her a picture. “She’s beautiful.” Sheila had said, the picture was old and wearing at the edges, but the woman in the photo was smiling wide. The longer she looked into the photo the more of Willis she could see, from the plump lips and hazel eyes, the crinkle by her eyes that Willis got when he rarely smiled and obviously the white forelock and flecks of white in her eyebrows and lashes._

_When she’d first met Willis that had been the first thing that had caught her attention. At first her friend had cracked a joke that “maybe he decided to dye his hair to look like a skunk” she’d said with a mean laugh, and she couldn’t help but laugh along. But then she’d seen his face and the patches of his skin that were a pale white instead of the olive skin tone (that she then realized he must’ve inherited from Kurtis)._

_“She picked me up from school one day, it was just her, Kurtis-” He cuts himself off and takes another drink, Shelia is looking at the screen now, not wanting to look at him. Afraid if she does this, this Willis, the one she had fallen in love with, will be gone once again. “We went to the movie theater, she’d always been a fan of scary stories. Most of my childhood was spent sitting in her lap while she’d tell me stories that would’ve made other kids piss their pants. So she took me to the movie theatre and I was so excited, this had been out for a few weeks and we were finally gonna go see it. And then, All the fuckin' blood and shit, I threw up. All over myself, right in the theater. Ma took me home and she was saying ‘it’s ok kirppu.' and I thought it was okay. Because she was so happy, and I listened to her talk on the phone with my aunt, about how much she loved the movie and even made a little joke about me hurlin’ on myself and then Kurtis, he-”_

_Sheila finally looks at him, he takes another swig of his beer, there’s tears in his eyes. She knows it’s the end of the story. She doesn’t try to touch him, she knows that wouldn’t go well for either of them. She looks at the screen as Adrienne King screams. They sit silently watching as the movie plays out._

_“You know,” She says almost fifteen minutes later, breaking their silence, “I’ve always liked the name Jason.”_

Jason Peter Todd was born at 8:47 PM on August 16th.

Jason was born and the world had ended.

At least in the metaphorical sense.

The beginning of his life marked the end of so much more. The entire world hadn’t imploded with the birth of just one child. But someone’s world had ended.

For the longest time, Jason had heard the phrase my life was so much better before you were born, so maybe to Willis his birth had been the catalyst in the world’s destruction.

Sheila never wanted a kid, she didn’t even know why she was still with Willis, so in a way, her world had also ended that day.

And maybe even Jason's was close to ending, maybe it was just written in the stars. This poor fucker's life is destined to always be on the edge of destruction. 

Under a burning red sky, and the 13th hour straight of heavy rain, Jason was born and it was like the gates of hell opening. 

_At least, that is what he would be told, or slightly different variations of this story. It depended on whatever the fuck Willis had been on one about today._

_Not that he believed it, Jason always thought the story was a crock of shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if accurately portrayed it but I wanted Shelia to be like one of those "mean girls who become nurses" but idk if that energy came through.
> 
> also if you're confused willis, adele, and jason all have piebaldism bc i like white streak jason but white streak coming from his death is kinda dumb tho, ergo i made it hereditary.
> 
> [my linktree](https://linktr.ee/noahfense)

**Author's Note:**

> also forgot to mention the title is from "bank on the funeral" by matt maeson idk why but ever since i heard his album "who killed matt maeson" in 2017 he just very much so gave me jason todd vibes


End file.
